Ubuntu 13.10 vs. Ubuntu 13.04: Reasons to Upgrade

The new Ubuntu is scheduled to arrive in a few days and users should upgrade

Ubuntu 13.10 desktop

Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) is scheduled for launch on October 17, but users of the previous operating systems from Canonical are wondering why they should upgrade at all, given the fact that the new one doesn't seem to have too many features.

Canonical has been focusing on quality and on improving the existing features rather than making any drastic changes. This meant that the last two versions of Ubuntu didn't have much to show for, at least on the surface.

Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail) has been called boring, among other things, but people don't realize that a lot of work is put behind every release of Ubuntu, even if it's not accompanied by any major visual changes.

So, why should you upgrade to Ubuntu 13.10 if there won't be any noticeable changes for the average user? Although it might seem that almost nothing has changed, the truth is that a lot of things have been upgraded, and that's always a good thing (most of the time).

The most important is, of course, the new Linux kernel 3.11.x, which is now the latest stable version available at the time of the launch. It comes with support for more devices and hardware components, better power management, and a ton of other improvements.

Then there is the upgrade for GNOME. Canonical may sport the Unity desktop environment, but they still use a lot of GNOME packages. Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) now comes with applications from the 3.8 branch, which is excellent news, especially for the Ubuntu GNOME flavor.

The Smart Scopes are also a big improvement over the former Lens feature. They are a lot better integrated and provide more to-the-point answers.

The security settings have been overhauled and users now have a lot more control over the traffic made by the operating system. It's possible to stop any communications between your PC or laptop and Canonical servers.

Ubuntu 13.10 is also a cornerstone for the package format. Until now, all the apps available for the Ubuntu came in a deb format, but the user had to have the dependencies installed or they had to do it separately.

With the new Click format, all the dependencies are now available from the package itself, which in theory means that you won't find any software incompatible with your distribution, if the developers use the Ubuntu SDK.

Last but not least, Unity has also received a multitude of improvements and should work much better than in any of the previous versions of Ubuntu.

If all these reasons are not enough to make you upgrade, then you should wait for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, but there is no guarantee that it's not going to “look” largely the same like Ubuntu 13.10.